


Midnight Feast

by notparticularly



Category: Septimus Heap - Angie Sage
Genre: Gen, Prompt Fill, heapster prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-29
Updated: 2014-01-29
Packaged: 2018-01-10 00:37:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1152713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notparticularly/pseuds/notparticularly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the Ramblings, behind a big door that had once been bright red but was now a dour black-grey, six children slept.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Midnight Feast

**Author's Note:**

> This starts off kinda angsty because I have an insuppressible need to write about the Custodian-occupied era. Don't fret though, I promise there's happiness and cute baby Heaps later on.
> 
> Also submitted to [Heapster Prompts](heapster-prompts.tumblr.com) on tumblr.

Frost coated the silent streets of the Castle, creeping up doors and windows like pale hands that snatched at the breath and nipped at exposed skin.

From a distance the Castle looked as though the top of the wall was ringed with a band of flickering gold, small fires lighting the night as Ordinary Wizards worked tirelessly to create a barrier of warmth that should - in theory - keep the worst of  the Big Freeze at bay for now.

For the first time in years, though, there weren't enough Wizards to ring the outer wall. They were spaced at distances too great to link hands, had to shout instructions and updates and orders to each other while Custodial Guards looked on with thinly veiled hostility. All in all, it wasn't exactly an ideal situation in which to work such complex **Magyk** as this.

Sarah Heap stood between her husband and oldest son, a frown creasing her brow as she wove the barrier across the night sky in front of her. The Extraordinary Wizard was furious, a fact felt by every Wizard **connected** to the barrier spell, but from her viewpoint Sarah could see why. Marcia was flanked by six Custodial Guards, all with weapons drawn.

Sarah felt a fleeting stab of pity for Marcia - it can't have been easy to be Extraordinary Wizard when there was such hatred for their powers. The Queen had always appreciated help from the Wizards, but in the past five years it was as though she had completely changed her mind. What had changed? Sarah couldn't understand why being a Wizard was becoming something only slightly above being a criminal, but she knew that the situation was worsening. She could only hope that her children wouldn't have to face the same adversity.

In the Ramblings, behind a big door that had once been bright red but was now a dour black-grey, six children slept. Although,  _tried_  to sleep would probably be a better description.

Excitement coloured the chilled air and laughter echoed through the dark corridors. For the Heap children, the arrival of the Big Freeze was not the herald of fear but of freedom. Their parents and big brother were gone for the whole night and most of tomorrow and, as Sam has gleefully put it, they could do whatever they wanted.

"Anything?" Jenna had gasped, eyes wide. This was the first year she'd been old enough to stay home, and she'd been looking forward to it for weeks.

"'Course!" Edd grinned, "Mum and Dad aren't here,"

"So they can't tell us not to do things," Erik added, finishing his twin's sentence with an identical grin.

It had been agreed the day before that, since this was Jenna's first year at home, she would be allowed to pick the first game. But, to their surprise, it was not a game she wanted.

"Can we have a midnight feast?" she asked, looking up at Sam with big violet eyes and tugging on his tunic with one chubby hand.

"If that's what you want to do, then that's what we'll do!" Sam said, ruffling her hair and sticking out his tongue.

Jenna was almost bouncing off the walls with excitement, and the twins weren't helping as they juggled plates and books and whatever else came to hand in perfect tandem as she squealed, trying to catch them as they flew over her conspicuously dark head.

Sam, as always, tried to ignore the way her almost jet black hair contrasted with the rest of their own straw coloured locks. He was old enough to understand the rumours his little sister's appearance sparked about his mother, but he didn't believe them for a second. He knew his mum and dad loved each other too much for _that_. Even if they were true, Jenna was his baby sister, and nothing could change that.

Nicko solemnly set out plates and Jo-Jo followed behind, putting a handful of sweets on each. Edd and Erik grinned, swooping down and grabbing their plates before clambering up a precariously piled up tower of books and perching on the top.

But their feast did not last long. Before they'd even finished their sweets, the transparent head of Alther Mella popped his head through the door, which creaked crossly at being woken up by an inconsiderate ghost. It had become a tradition that Uncle Alther would warn them when their parents were coming home, so the Heap children could pretend they hadn't been getting up to all sorts of mischief. But he'd never come this early before.

"Your mum and dad are on their way back, and they'll be tired. The spell was hard this year." He told Sam quietly as his brothers began to tidy up a bit, and Sam nodded solemnly. He was old enough, too, to understand that people didn't seem to _like_ Wizards anymore. Magyk was funny that way: if people stopped believing, it never worked so well. He didn't know why, or how, but he could feel a change coming to the Castle, and it wasn't a good one. If mum and dad were coming home so soon, they mustn't have been able to create the barrier as well as before.

They were going to be in for a cold winter.


End file.
